When I awoke, I was lying in a hospital bed. I was groggy, and pain radiated from my body, but I was alive.

I froze, eyes flying open and looking around in a panic. Where was Ed? Was he okay? Where exactly was I?

As I lurched upwards, a comforting hand pushed against my shoulder, and a voice rang out beside me.

"Easy. Easy, Reyna. Easy. Ed's fine, if that's what's gotten you so huffy about. Take it easy."

I knew that voice.

I turned and found the smiling face of Hughes beside me. His hand was on my shoulder, and he looked happy to me.

"Hughes?" I asked breathlessly.

That's when I felt the cloth wrapped around my neck.

I lifted my hand, feeling my neck tentatively. It was wrapped all the way around, and it hurt. I felt like I had swallowed sandpaper.

Hughes, seeing that I wasn't going to try to leap out of bed, sighed in relief and turned his body slightly in the chair he was in. He picked up a glass of water with a straw in it from the nightstand and held it up to me.

I reached for it with shaky hands, but Hughes gently batted them away. "Just, let me help you, okay?" He asked gently, a fatherly gaze shining in his eyes.

With a small sigh, it hurt even to do that, I nodded, and allowed him to hold the water up to me.

I drank slowly, and Hughes began to talk.

"Honestly kid, I thought the only one who could scare me that badly was your brother, or my wife, or my darling little daughter. But damn, you can't do anything by halves, can you? Is it just a Mustang trait or something?"

I was finished completely with the glass of water by the time he was done speaking, so I just gave him a sarcastic smirk. My throat felt better, but it still probably wasn't okay to talk too much right now.

Ah, what did I care about self-preservation?

"Sorry, Hughes." I muttered softly with a small, apologetic smile.

Hughes sighed, running a hand through his short hair, before he smiled back at me kindly. "You know, I really need to do something about that lack of being able to stay mad at Mustang's." He said thoughtfully.

Then he leaned forward, putting a strong, reassuring hand on my shoulder, "Just try not to scare me that badly in the future, okay? You're giving a man gray hairs just thinking about it!" He chided softly.

I smiled at him, "Thanks for being here." I kept my voice low and soft, so I didn't irritate my aching throat worse.

Hughes just patted my shoulder, before leaning back. "Roy was here for a bit too. But he didn't stay long. Said something about work. Honestly, couldn't pull that man away from his work with a crane in my opinion!" Hughes joked cheerfully.

The knowledge that my brother had been here, but he hadn't bothered to stay long enough to see me wake up, had me torn between wanting to smile and wanting to cry.

When I didn't say anything, Hughes pinned me with an intelligent look that made him appear as if he was dissecting my every move. "You two had a fight. Didn't you? Roy was tenser than usual. And he wasn't himself. I know he would have stayed until you woke up in the past, but he didn't even stay five minutes. What happened? And don't lie to me. I know you too well." The seriousness in his tone reminded me that Hughes wasn't always a cheerful, happy go lucky guy. He was a man who had seen wars, was incredibly intelligent, and had kept my brother alive for a long time.

I sighed, hanging my head, refusing to let the tears fall. "Yes. We….. We had a fight." I conceded. My fingers danced along my ribcage, noting that my ribs were bound as well.

When Hughes didn't say anything, I continued, and told him about the fight that Roy and I had had.

When I was finished, I waited for him to tell me that I should try to see things from Roy's point of view. Instead, he just sighed and ran his fingers through my hair comfortingly.

"I'm sorry, Reyna. I know you're brother isn't the best person in the world to get along with. And you've known him longer than me. I can understand where he's coming from, I feel protective of you too, but that doesn't mean I agree with his methods." Hughes said softly, before pulling me towards him.

He had gotten up on the side of the bed, and he pulled me into his arms, running his fingers through my hair and rubbing my back.

I sighed and leaned my forehead against his shoulder, still stubbornly refusing to cry.

He leaned his cheek against my head, and his beard poked me through my hair, "It's okay to cry, Reyna. Even your brother needs to be reminded of that sometimes."

With those words, I couldn't hold it back anymore.

I cried softly against his shoulder, reminded of the times when I was younger, and worshipped Hughes as much as I did Roy. I didn't make a noise, the only indication I was crying was the shaking of my shoulders, and slowly, the tears stopped.

I drew in ragged breaths, and Hughes just held me.

"There you go. See? Wasn't that bad, was it? Don't worry, Roy will come to his senses eventually. In the meantime, maybe you should try extending a hand too. You're siblings, you'll make up sometime. Just….. Just try to understand that Roy is worried about you. Even if he doesn't show it, he does care." Hughes said.

I nodded, and he held me away from him, giving me a friendly smile before wiping the tears off my cheeks.

"Also, I might even sick Hawkeye on him."

I giggled at the image of an angry Riza hounding my brother, and Hughes' face broke into a wide smile.

"There's that smile I wanted to see. Gotta keep that there, kiddo." Then he stood up, "Anyway. I've gotta check on the Elrics. I had some people bring a change of clothes for you since I know you hate those hospital gowns. So you can get dressed. Just be careful, okay? Don't strain those ribs more. They're just cracked, but we don't want them to get worse. Okay young lady?" He waved his finger threatingly at me, but his smile belayed his words.

I saluted him anyway, chirping a playful, "Yes sir!"

He puffed out his chest, threw me a wink, then began to walk out, "Oh, and there's an officer outside the door if you need help."

Then he was gone.

I shook my head, smiling at him. Hopefully he was right. Though, he normally was.

I looked over at the spare chair and noticed that my clothes were there, including my alchemist coat and pocket watch.

Carefully, I got out of bed, hissing in pain as my ribs protested the movement.

I knew the floor was probably cold, but I couldn't feel it anyway, so I walked across the room and grabbed the first thing I could.

FMAB

After I was dressed, which took much longer than it should have, in a comfortable pair of jeans, black boots, a purple tank top, and a black jacket, I began to walk outside.

I swung my coat over my shoulder as I walked out into the hall.

I was greeted by Ross, who nodded respectfully to me. "Major Mustang!" She greeted, snapping to attention.

I forgot that Alchemists are automatically promoted to Majors. Great.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes and returned the salute, if lazily. "Hello Lieutenant."

"Are you sure you're well enough to be walking around, Major?" She asked as she looked at me worriedly.

I did roll my eyes then. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Just a few bruises is all." I replied. My voice sounded a lot better than it did when I woke up, but I still sounded kind of sick.

Ross raised an eyebrow, "Forgive me if I don't believe you."

I smirked at her, "Fair enough. Consider yourself forgiven. Where's your partner, anyway?"

"With Major Elric and his brother." Came the reply.

I nodded, "Alright. Could you take me to them, please?"

FMAB

After a short trip, I pushed open a door to see a blonde woman with tear tracks on her cheeks and red eyes standing in the center of the room with a wrench in her hands, facing Hughes.

They turned to me as I walked inside and I raised an eyebrow, "Don't tell me you've chased Ed and Al away already, Hughes."

He gave me a smirk, "Good to see you're back to your usual self, Reyna." Then he waved me forward, waving his hand to the blonde girl who was staring at me curiously.

"Reyna, this is Winry Rockbell. She's Ed's mechanic!" Hughes chirped, then he leaned down next to my ear, "Who Ed may or may not be trying to seduce." Before declaring louder, despite Winry having heard and turning cherry red, "Winry, this is the lovely Reyna Mustang!"

I held a hand out to her, "Pleasure to meet you. How does one handle Ed's version of seducing?"

She glared at Hughes, but took my hand to give it a firm shake. "Edward and I aren't dating, as Hughes seemed to have gotten it into his head that we were, and Ed wasn't trying to seduce me!"

I looked around the room, as if Ed would be hiding underneath the bed, "Speaking of, where is he? And where's Al?"

Winry fidgeted, tightening her grip on the wrench in her hands. "Well, Al….. Is dealing with some problems, and Ed doesn't like it. I had to beat some sense into Al…. I think they're both on the roof now or something."

At my confused look, after all, how could Al get into that much trouble that Ed wouldn't like it? Winry told me what Al had convinced himself was true.

At the end of her tale, I was already running down the hallway, intent on finding the two idiots I called my friends.